TV Review: Doctor Who Series 10 Episode Six - "Extremis"

"You Seem Like A Man With Regret On His Mind..."

When the opening titles roll and the words, "written by Steven Moffat" appear upon the screen amidst whirling noises of theremins and the eyebrows of the Twelfth Doctor, the unwitting desire to wonder whether the next 45 minutes will either be in the camp of superb recent episodes such as "Blink", "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" and "Heaven Sent" or in the not-so-good area of stories such as "The Beast Below" and "The Bells of Saint John". Whilst Capaldi does seem to get the best out of Moffat's writing, due in part to an acting ability above the levels of which the mind can comprehend, this week's episode, "Extremis", is ultimately a lesser beast than the masterpieces Who fans have been treated to over the years but still a mindbogglingly brave and adventurous episode, the type of which is determined for the die-hard Who fans to watch much more than once in order to understand its' complete complexities and impact on the season's overall narrative endgame. Acting as a pre-cursor to the continuation of the story next week, "Extremis" answers an abundance of questions that have arisen from the series so far and unlike previous episodes, is a story primarily dedicated solely to Peter Capaldi's Doctor, something of which is rarely a missed opportunity. 

With an episode which veers everywhere from the Vatican to the Oval Office, "Extremis" is an interesting experimental episode of Doctor Who which takes ques from previous episodes such as "Dark Water/Death In Heaven" in regards to the use of artificial intelligence and the notion of the finality of death not exactly coming full circle, whilst the episode's main antagonists seem to cross wardrobes between the titular mummy from "Mummy on the Orient Express" and the Order of the Headless from "A Good Man Goes to War", exposing skinless fingers from intergalactic portals and conveying their desires through a whispered tone of eeriness. At the centre of the narrative is the Veritas, a supposed cursed text which leads to the death of anyone who reads it and whilst the twist and importance of this particular element is definitely something of which I can safely say I didn't see coming, it is hard to review "Extremis" as a singular episode because of the ambiguity of the ultimate conclusion which awaits us within the coming weeks. What "Extremis" does boast however is a interestingly spooky script and enough fan-pleasing elements to keep the majority of its' audience hyped for what's to come, even with the rather anti-climactic resolution of who indeed was the guest of the Doctor's sacred vault. 

Overall Score: 8/10